Interval Development

After being out of action for a couple of weeks with illness, I've found it extremely frustrating and hard to get back onto the right track and my design work has stalled abit because of it. With the extension, it will still give me time to hopefully finish the project to level of quality I want but has not left me with a whole lot of time to develop my concepts further. I've moved on from my previous ideas and have gone with the idea of rotating a particular shape, in this case the pentagonal shape featured in the facade of the Design school. I decided to stop making sketches and trying to think 3-dimensionally in a 2d format (the cause of my problems in the last project) and realised the only way to explore my ideas to their full extent and resolve the design was to make and develop a series of maquettes. Below also is a piece of furniture designed by Marc Newson that has also provdied a source for inspiration.

My 3D thought process began by making a Lego block piece, playing with a module and repeating it to form an object.



From that i decided to use a single shape that had been inspired by the facade and that would be practical to make using the 6mm MDF available at the Workshop. The next problem after this, would be to manipulate form and use similar connections to make an upstanding side-table that features and controls light.

The maquette below is a scaled model of what will be the final version of my Interval project. It uses the pentagonal shape and dimensions developed from the facade and will be made with 6mm MDF with slit connections and no requirements for glue for the final piece. Perforations will be considered to allow light to filter through the centre of the model and disperse as it travels through the core. This is symbolic of the atrium space in the Industrial design building and have provided a platform for inspiration and design.

Interval Concepts

The Interval project has given us the scope now to take a break from all the architectural ideas we have to consider when designing and we now have the freedom to design for something on a much smaller scale with the opportunity to build it. It provided an opportunity to play with form and light on a more accessible scale with responsibility and design focus limited to a much smaller spectrum of events. I have decided to make a lamp/ table that will reside in the lounge areas of the building (eg. staff lounge/ common room).

Ideas for the form of the Interval project have been driven by the facade of the building. The curves seen on the Clare St facade that were driven by prominent streamlining seen in many industrial design projects, might feature in my design. I'm hoping to incorporate a lamp or lighting system with a stand that also holds books or is able to provide a stand for other items.

I am also wanting to carry on with my ideas of repetition and the idea of modules - having one particular shape and creating a pattern through rotation and manipulation of it. In the sketches above, I've begun experimenting again and hope to carry this idea through the form of the model.

At the moment I'm considering using the pattern on the faces of solid square-like segments through a fabric or material that is semi-transparent and that will allow the light to filter through. I might start to think of actually using a shape in a pattern or manipulate it to form the actual structure of the model.

DDI review

After getting it all together frantically for the review, I was left feeling happy with what I had come up with but disatisfied at the same time. I felt my concepts were strong but I had just not given myself enough time to explore different parts of the project, parts that may have been more important in conveying the design than others for review day. As seen in my posters below, I spent considerable time on the planning and my facade worked, but as pointed out by the review panel, I didn't explore the design 3-dimensionally as well as could have been and didn't have any sort of images to show this.

After reading about industrial design there were 2 phrases that stuck in my mind most that Shakespeare had written and that apply to industrial design. They are:

'Ornament is but the guilded shore to a most dangerous sea'; and

'Weary, stale, flat & unprofitable'.

Perhaps in future assignments I should spend more time on presenting my ideas to enable others to understand the building and what it might be like to inhabit it. More time also needs to be spent on thinking of the building as a whole 3-dimensional form, not as seperate entities driving by planning, elevation, then a model.

Concepts & Facade Design

So after looking at Newson's work and having a think about Industrial design, I sought to design the facade with all in mind and have experimented with the repetition of shapes, colours and materials. Triangular and pentagonal shapes have been played with, rotated and arranged in ways that might feature along the facades. In the drawing below, ideas for the facade include a structure that takes shape around the rotated shapes and a material such as a fabric with coloured lights featuring behind or on the material will be used to designate the computer lab spaces for both the industrial and ESD schools.

On the Clare St facade, solar chimneys will feature to make use of the ventilation on the site and also provide scope for detailing. The flowing lines seen in the images are inspired by the streamlining seen in a lot of projects such as steamtrains, aircraft and a lot of products using metalwork - aided in design by the industrial revolution. Bright colours are inspired by the work of Newson and will add flare to the building and give it a sense of identity as a creative school within the DDI.

With the building sharing the computer labs with the ESD school, environmental principles will also be a focus of the building. Daylighting is vital and the following points have been considered:

• Orientation (preferably east-west)
• Bright interior surfaces
• Perimeter daylight zones
• High extended windows on perimeter walls
• Light shelves on facades
• Minimising direct-beam sunlight penetration into work spaces
• Correct choice for glazing
• Roof apertures
• Skylighting
• Use of reflective roofing on sawtooth clerestories

Ventilation is also important and the following has been noted:

• Evaporative cooling
• Thermal chimney effect (windcatchers...wind coming through the ground floor and rising through the staircases and corridors)

Ideas for materials have also been thought of in terms of both reflecting industrial design and being environmentally conscious:

• the building must be deconstructable
• like industrial products, disassembling important
• Recyclable materials (R.A.R.E architecture...waste=food)

All the concepts and ideas need to be tied together with the planning and all sorted and finalised for presentation.

Industrial School in 3D

After planning the spaces of the school, thought has now been given to the structure of the building. The structure is to be a simple steel post & beam arrangement, based on an 8m grid. Concrete floors will feature Bondek and a sawtooth roof system is going to be used throughout the building, with the glazing facing south to get as much diffuse light as possible throughout the classrooms on the top level and through the atrium space.

Whilst figuring out the grid, a maquette of the building below (1:400) shows a basic form of the building in relation to the Library. It shows the massive nature of it & the need for the atrium space in the middle provide both circulation and natural light, breaking up the 70 m long solid structure.

I began researching a little more into Industrial design, attempting to get my head around what it is and how I can represent it through architecture. After going through a couple of books, I noted down some key points that helped me understand it and might help add substance to my design and drive it into not only a functional building, but one that represents and achieves a lot more. Industrial design involves:

• creation, invention from the solution to a problem or need, giving rise to a 3-dimensional form & its materiality - capable of multiple reproduction by mechanical means
• repitition
• a high level of skill and artestry

In recognising the importance of industrial design, I've chosen to research a Sydney designer, Marc Newson, and hope to understand his style and technique and somehow use what I've learnt and apply it to either the facades of my building or any design feature to help my aim of representing Industrial design through my building. Below is an image of his work highlighting the repititon of a single shape and use of colour in his work, something I might use in the facade design.

Industrial Design School Plans

Whilst trying to plan for the building, I've begun my thought process by trying to nut out my ideas on paper and listing exactly what I want to achieve and what is needed. The functions of the building include:

Ground Level...

• Reception
• Foyer
• Lecture Theatres 1 & 2
• Amenities
• Retail
• Vertical Access

Level 1...

• Lecture Theatres 1 & 2
• Offices
• Admin/ Resource Centre
• Research
• Amenities
• Vertical Access

Level 2...

• Computer Labs
• Tutorial Rooms
• Amenities
• Vertical Access

Level 3...

• Roof Garden
• Amenities
• Vertical Access
  

In the planning of the building, I am trying to achieve, as with our masterplan, a system whereby a central hub becomes the point of activity within the school and from that, private spaces for teaching and learning feed off and are separated from the social/ communal areas. A main street of promenade within the building, joining it to the library and providing a connection and place for people to pass one another and interact, is also featured. I'm confident with where the planning is heading but I have to start thinking about materials and also the building in a 3-dimensional way.

Group Design for ESD & Industrial Design Schools

After combining all the ideas generated from the different groups of the class, we zoomed in on our section and were given the chance to design the Industrial and Environmental Schools of design for the DDI. We tidied up a few loose concepts from the week before, and worked hard throughout the week to produce plans, sections and conceptual perspectives of how we thought the spaces might feel. Below is the ground floor plan for our proposal, drawn by Joe.

Our design points for our proposal include:


Our initial concept was to have the ESD school as the backbone to the other schools. The bender serves as a connection between the ESD and Industrial faculties and has been used to connect both schools as it interacts with the public.

Junction (crossroad)…
Serves as a core through the centre and axis of the two buildings and allows students to pass through both buildings.

Interaction between existing Deakin…
A link is made between both buildings through a cafeteria on level 2 (above Brougham St). It allows students to pass from the A+B studio on the 3rd level of the existing waterfront campus through to the ESD campus with the provision of a communal space. Pathways are created between the two buildings also that stem from studio to studio on a number of levels to allow transition for students.

Public spaces…
Large open areas are provided for spaces of high activity. The spaces include the studio, for example, and the studio is situated below mezzanine levels and an atrium space to encourage interaction through views of the spaces below.

Conference Hall…
Isolated, easily accessed by all four schools. Situated next to the library, it serves as a central hub, a communal area, and is easily accessed from Brougham and Clare streets)

Integration between Fashion school
Nooks and intimate spaces created by the angled form of the building.

Distinguished access – ‘the bender’ (addressing it…we know high activity occurs here, therefore we’ve drawn people into space from high, private and public use areas)

Configuration: was designed with intention of how spaces (frequent use) determined and the locality of it

Connectivity between different faculties & stemmed spaces from the bender…
‘the bender’ acts as a divider between the schools has been utilized and acts as a pathways which encourages social interaction. This is achieved through public spaces and avenues such as the galleries and retail areas. Retail areas to be used by the public and encourage social activity in the area; public open spaces provided to allow students, customers, and people passing through the bender to stop and interact with the building.


Integrating the natural sloping grade of the site…
Working with ‘the bender’ as a central hub to the two schools, it is entered at ground floor from Gheringhap St and follows through to Cunningham pier. The slope of the site allows for different floor levels to be created between the different areas of the faculty (ie. the conference hall/ auditorium).

Softened & activated edges…
Achieved through positioning shops on street front; galleries displaying students’ work; the basic form of the building and materiality (ESD-driven); green wedges & vertical landscaping to create that connection.

ESD-driven principles…
- Garden terraces (energy efficiency, public space away from work space, maximising bay views)
- Solar access & energy efficiency: potentially areas where the will be students and teachers, natural light, perform much better (comfort factor – ESD natural light)
- Vertical landscaping
- Louvres
- Passive heating & cooling
- Ventilation

For the next individual design stage, I have chosen to work on the bottom right corner of the masterplan which is a building housing offices, lecture theatres, and tutorial rooms for the Industrial design school as well as shared computer labs for both it and the ESD school.

DDI group masterplan

Hey hey all, I know I've been pretty slow to get started on this but I guess I've got to start somewhere...

So after joining a group with Raymond, Joe, Laurenzo & Bill, we started working on coming up with a Masterplan for the Deakin DDI. After sitting down and discussing the project, we were able to produce a list of objectives that we wanted to achieve in our plan. They consisted of:

1. The need to not overshadow public spaces
2. Creation of secondary streets
3. Definition of public & private space
4. A 'Central Hub'
5. Connection & interaction between schools
6. Avoiding building isolation
7. Providing distinguished paths between Bus/ Train depot to the school
8. Maximising views to the bay
9. Emphasis on historical buildings
10. Higher density to the southern end of the site
11. Gallery space being public space
12. Preserving & addition of parklands

So after coming together as a group and creating our goals, we each broke off and individually analysed different aspects of the site. I had a particular interest in green spaces and also traffic movement and the two images below show these features in our proposal.

For our proposal of a masterplan for the new schools, our design is based around the environmentally sustainable school being located in the centre with all the other schools around it, allowing the environmental building to generate the form of all the other buildings. The group tried to address the issues of the site in a 3-dimensional manner also, paying attention to building heights in order to achieve views and other objectives.

After pinning up our plans from Tuesday, our group has been designated the environmental and industrial design schools around the bender.